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UCI Road Cycling World Championships
The World Champs are in Wollongong! For the next week, the eyes of cycling fans from around the world will be on our beautiful city. To safely host the event though there were will be road closures around each of the races. You can see information on which roads are closed - and when - on the interactive maps here: https://wollongong2022.com.au/resident-information-road-closures/.
Though the City Circuit portion of the course circles Beaton Park, the Leisure Centre - and track - will remain open as per usual. With the main driveway inaccessible, vehicular access will be restricted to the Gipps St entry (i.e. "the back way", located between the army barracks and the soccer fields). You can either park on that side of the waterway and take the pedestrian bridge to the Centre; else, drive a little further towards the basketball stadium, cross the causeway and park as per regular. To get to Gipps St, take the Porter St exit off Memorial Ave, southbound.
Those who live within the City Circuit course will likely have to walk to get to the track: free warm-up! High pedestrian areas will have a volunteer nearby ensuring it's safe to cross; outside of those you can cross at your own risk.
Those looking to soak up the atmosphere could do worse than basing themselves in Gwynneville. It's close to the motorway, there's plenty of parking around the Leisure Centre, and the Tennis Club has food trucks and an outdoor bar setup outside. See you there!
The Athletics Wollongong Facebook group has been busy collating results from our members at various schools championships.
This included the Australian Cross Country Championships, where two of our members represented NSW School Sport and met with great success. Harry Keats (12 Boys) and Charlize Colwell (U17 Para) both finished with a silver individual medal and a gold teams medal. Well done!
When it comes to track and field though, the event that brings the serious athletes from each of the education streams all together, is yet to get underway. The NSW All Schools Championships will be held at Sydney Olympic Park from next Saturday, 24th September, until the following Tuesday.
Over 2000 athletes will be contesting the event, which is by far the highest attendance in recent years. 40 Athletics Wollongong members have thrown their hat into the ring and we wish them all the best of luck. We'll be tracking all of their performances online, so be sure to drop into our Facebook to pass on your well-wishes and congratulations.
There appears to be a real hunger for athletics right now, perhaps due to recent Australian success at both the World Championships and Commonwealth Games. Hopefully we will see the same when our registrations open soon!
You can join Athletics Wollongong for Season 2022/23 from 9am on September 26th. It's easy to sign-up: go to the club website Registration page, read about the various membership types available as you scroll to the bottom, and click the Returning Member button (or New Member, as the case may be).
There are a couple of changes to the membership categories this season: both the Concession and Dual registrations now extend down to 10 years of age.
A Dual membership is available to those who have already joined a Little Athletics Centre for the season. As our respective State bodies (ANSW and LANSW) both share the same insurance, there's no point for Little A's parents to pay for it twice. Joining a "senior" club - like Athletics Wollongong - via a Dual membership, gives the same benefits as Concession, but at a big discount.
Lowering the age to 10 for Dual means that more Little Athletes will have access to an even greater number of events. If you are part of a Little A's Centre, we strongly encourage you to tell newly-eligible athletes about our club. We hope you agree that we're pretty good!
Don't forget, also, that a first-year Dual membership is FREE. Once regos open, eligible applicants can email us their child's name, DOB and Little A's Centre. We'll send back a 100% discount code to apply during the registration process (NB - please apply at least 24 hours prior to event entry closing dates or any participation at our Wednesday meets).
The cost of a registration includes the 'base price' for the category from Athletics NSW and a 'club fee' collected by the organisation an athlete registers with. The club fee pays for the services provided to a member; for example, our Wednesday meets, financial support, trophies, etc.
While society raced to hit vaccination targets last season, the commencement of our meets was delayed by a month. Consequently, the Committee decided to cut our club fee for 2021/22 by $10. Now that we will get a full, local Summer season this time around, we'll be returning the club fee to its original value. The good news is: Athletics NSW have put a freeze on their portion of the registration fee for this season, so there will only be a very slight increase overall.
Regular service has resumed! 2022/23 will have a full season of over 20 local meets and as many ANSW-delivered events as to tire even the most enthusiastic athlete!
Active Kids voucher
The Active Kids program provides two $100 vouchers per year for parents/guardians/carers of school-enrolled children to use towards sport and active recreation costs. A voucher can be accepted during the Athletics Wollongong registration process to lower costs. For more information - and to apply for your voucher - see the NSW Government website: https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/apply-active-kids-voucher.
The Red Book is Athletics Wollongong's Membership Guide. It contains information about the club and how best to get value from your membership. It's also a handy reference for club records, event specifications, the yearly program, and so on. The 2022/23 edition is in its final stage of updating. A link to download it will be included in the 'Welcome to AW' email that you will receive upon registration. You can also always access it via the club website, from either the Registration or Competition pages. If you've got a question about the club, the answer is probably in there! It's a very handy resource and we encourage everyone to give it a read.
Once it's complete, links to it will be included in all of our membership promotions. Word of mouth is our best advertisement though, so - if you're spreading the Athletics Wollongong gospel - be sure that you know that this guide exists and how to access it.
Now: which club records are you going to try and break this season?
The program for Athletics Wollongong's Summer Season of weekly Wednesday meets has been released. You can see what you're in for during 2022/23 on the Competition page of the club website.
Everyone who's been to one of our meets knows that we're onto a winner, so there haven't been terribly many changes to the schedule of recent years. Some club favourites will be back: the Athletics Wollongong Gift, 60m Skins Champion of Champions, the Anniversary Special, and the Turkey Run.
The 200m Zoom will remain a special week, with free ground entry, prizes and added pizzaz. New to the calendar will be a Christmas relay and there will be a resumption of the Region Championships (check out this news report from an early 90s edition, back when we were still called Southern Flame: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-JCssVcD64; you might even spot a couple of AW Life Members!).
Around these special occasions, of course, will be a rotating program of all the track and field events that we love; encouraging participants to beat their season bests and improve week-on-week.
The 2023 NSW Country Championships venue has been announced: Dubbo! If you're intending on participating in the best Championships event on the calendar, you might want to secure your accommodation now. There'll be a club dinner organised during the event, as per previous years, but we'll be leaving it to individuals to organise lodgings to suit their own budget, comfort level, etc.
Country is only open to members of clubs from outside the metropolitan Sydney area (Athletics Wollongong is an eligible club). It's the 'highest level' event that all ages can participate at, but it retains a relaxed feel and good vibes. It's athletics done right; be a part of it in Dubbo, January 20th-22nd.
AW Winter Distance Running Pointscore Results
Athletics Wollongong's Winter parkrun series has come to an end and we have some winners. In the Seniors the victor was Ros Perry with 72%, followed by Scott Bazley with 66%. The Juniors division was taken out by Carlo Talarida with 73%, followed by Seattle Bazley with 65%.
As well as local parkruns at Sandon Point, North Wollongong and Shellharbour, AW members also completed parkruns at Goulburn, Rhodes, Broken Hill, Perry Lakes (Perth) and Goondiwindi. Des Comer was the most travelled AW member competing at five different locations. The most prolific AW parkrunner was a tie between Tom Schambron and Des Comer, who both completed 15 parkruns over the four month period.
There will be a presentation to the winners on a Wednesday when the summer season starts.
The inaugural Australian Masters Indoor Throwing Championships were held last month up on the Central Coast. The Il Cadore Equestrian Centre was the venue, with the sandy floor and large covered area allowing for weight throw and shot put events.
Dave Ross was a force in the Men's 70-74 age group, taking out the weight throw and super weight throw, and winning a silver in the shot put.
Athletics Wollongong will be hosting our annual fundraising BBQ at North Wollongong Bunnings on Saturday, November 12th. This will be our last ever BBQ at the venue, with recent reports stating that they will be closing that outlet early in the new year.
We'll require a number of helpers to share the workload across the day, doing two-hour shifts starting from 830am and finishing by 430pm. All up, we require 16-20 people. Volunteering is short and painless, with all the preparation having been done and only leaving helpers to work the tongs or till.
Those assisting will become eligible for receiving financial assistance for Nationals. If you can help out, lock in your preferred time now, by emailing athleticswollongong@gmail.com.
Our other fundraising/volunteering opportunity this year will be at Splash Wollongong. This is the rescheduled swimming/aquathon event from earlier this year. Once again, AW will be offering athlete check-in and course marshalling services. It's a short and fun time, with the bulk of volunteers only required for an hour or two in the morning. While we're not asking for your interest just yet, keep December 10th in your diary.
Athletics Wollongong had a table at Paralympics Australia's recent Multi-sport Come and Try Day. Hosted at the University, sporting bodies were invited to showcase themselves to those whom the Paralympics might be an eventual goal. Though many of the attendees were from out of the region, we were able to talk to them all about athletics, inspiring them with tales of our own, very successful, para members. We hope to see many more on the track and in the field, wearing our colours, for years to come.
One area that Athletics Wollongong could improve upon, is the number of accredited officials associated with the club. With people knowing the correct way to officiate an event, it means that our participants will have a better experience - and that there'll be no surprises if they were to compete elsewhere under more exacting eyes. While we very much do NOT want to change the relaxed and social feel of our club meets, more educated and experienced helpers there can only be a good thing.
The good news is: that gaining accreditation these days comes at no cost, and can be done in your own home in your own time. The Australian Athletics Officials' Education Scheme is a joint initiative between Little Athletics Australia and Athletics Australia that provides a seamless and transparent education pathway for Australian Athletics Officials. It's a way to be more knowledgeable about our sport, or perhaps even the start of a pathway that could lead to you being at the upcoming home Commonwealth and Olympic Games.
For more information on the Scheme, or to begin your online learning, see: https://www.athletics.com.au/officials/australian-athletics-officials-education-scheme-/.
You can help the club whenever you make a purchase at rebel Sport. Just drop our name at the checkout and the club could receive 2% of your purchase price to buy prizes or equipment for our members. Note that we don't receive a record of what those purchases are, nor who has done the purchasing: no shaming of shopaholics!
Coming Dates
Contact Details
Email davidrosswollongong@hotmail.com with athletics news to include in our regular Illawarra Mercury column. Send other enquiries to athleticswollongong@gmail.com.
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